You’ve seen those guys. A truck pulls up to a commercial building and a commercial painting contractor and his crew get out and start crawling all over the building like ants. In no time at all, the building is painted and you think, I should hire those guys to paint my house. Well, not so much.

Most commercial painting companies have never done anything else. The way they go about doing their job is completely different from a residential painter. The only criteria are to cover every surface with paint in as little time as possible. You may think that is a good thing. After all, you want your house painters to finish quickly. But there are major differences.

First, when painters arrive at a commercial job, they are the first finish contractors there. This means there is no carpet or appliances or furnishings or trim, such as light switches. They can roll through the building with power sprayers and rollers and cover every surface they are supposed to and many that they are not.

Another difference is they don’t have to clean up their mess. When they hit the last wall with paint, they leave. The windows that they completely covered with paint are someone else’s problem. The puddle of paint from the bucket they kicked over isn’t their mess to clean up.

Finally, there is the quality of the paint and workmanship. Again, the job of a commercial painting company is to cover the surface with paint. They don’t have to do prep work. If the surfaces aren’t ready when they get there, it gets covered up anyway. It doesn’t have to be quality paint; it just has to cover the surface. And if the job really calls for two coats of paint, well their contract didn’t call for two coats of paint, so tough.

All of these differences set a residential painting company from a commercial painting company. You need someone who will come in and work with you to decide what and where to paint. Then they will return and carefully move and cover everything that doesn’t get painted. Next they will prep every surface to ensure the finished paint job is of the highest quality. Finally, they will cover your walls and ceilings with a quality paint that will last for years.